By Mike Schnitzel
³He told me I was polluting the environment,² the elder Marshalik recounted. ³He said that I should either buy a small car or ride a bicycle.²
Yevgeniy rode his bike wherever he could, his father said, and was always thinking of ways that he could help save the world around him. That search led Yevgeniy, known to friends as Eugene, to New York City¹s auxiliary police force, where he felt that he was helping the people around him.
It also led him to Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village on March 14, where he was gunned down by an ex-Marine who had just murdered a pizzeria worker. Yevgeniy was 19.
He came to the United States in 1993 to avoid the internecine conflict in his native Chechnya, hoping to find a life where the sound of gunfire was not commonplace. Eventually settling in a house on the Valley Stream/North Woodmere border, Yevgeniy indulged his numerous interests, which included skiing and bike riding, in addition to his concern for humanity.
Attending Stuyvesant High School, he relished his role on the debate team, discussing topics ranging from protecting the environment to the ever-increasing gap between the country¹s rich and poor. ³If someone else was hurting, it hurt him also,² said his father. ³He was a very idealistic boy. He wanted to save the world.²
After graduating from Stuyvesant in 2005, Yevgeniy began attending New York University, where he majored in political science. He had taken an interest in being a prosecutor soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to Boris.
Yevgeniy¹s younger brother, Max, 18, a senior at G.W. Hewlett High School, spoke about his brother¹s character at his funeral last Sunday, where Yevgeniy was accorded full police honors. ³His strength ... character was tremendous and his heart ... always with his family and friends, as it will always be. I love you so much, Eugene. We all love you and will miss you.²
Despite his love of debating, Yevgeniy wasn¹t one to expound on an issue at the drop of a hat. In general, he preferred to take in his surroundings, and life itself. ³If he said a few words, everyone listened, because it was something you should hear,² Boris said. ³You couldn¹t just ignore it.²
Boris said he hopes to start a charity in his son¹s name that would collect money to buy bulletproof vests for auxiliary police officers. Yevgeniy was not wearing a vest when he was shot because the police department does not provide them to auxiliary police.
³He had this Marine armed to the teeth coming for him ... what could he do with a nightstick?² Boris said, his voice cracking. ³I never, ever, ever want this to happen to someone else. Something needs to be changed in the system.²
He added that auxiliary police could not be allowed to ³be walking targets for criminals.²
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
Anatomy of a killing spree
By Jeff Lipton
A man identified as David Garvin, 42, of the Bronx, strode into De Marco¹s Pizzeria and Restaurant at 146 W. Houston St., near MacDougal Street, in Greenwich Village at 9:20 p.m. on March 14, according to a New York City police spokesman.
Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a fake gray beard and a Yankees baseball cap, Garvin asked the 35-year-old bartender, Alfredo Romero Morales of Queens, for a menu. When Morales turned around, Garvin pumped several gunshots into his back with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. Police said they were investigating whether the execution was some sort of revenge killing. The gunman then calmly walked out of the pizza shop, removing the beard and baseball cap, police said.
Garvin then fled down MacDougal and then Bleecker Street, heading toward Sullivan Street, police said. A sergeant and two police officers who heard gunshots rushed to the pizza shop and discovered the mortally wounded bartender. The officers began searching for the gunman on MacDougal Street.
At Bleecker and Sullivan streets, Garvin encountered two uniformed auxiliary police officers, Eugene Marshalik, 19, and Nicholas Pekearo, 28. In a dramatic surveillance video released by police, Garvin was seen running up one side of Sullivan Street as the auxiliary officers, who were unarmed, followed him on the other side.
Suddenly, the gunman darted across the street toward Pekearo, who was crouched behind a car for protection, and shot him six times, police said. The bullets pierced his body even though he was reportedly wearing a bulletproof vest he had purchased.
Garvin then hunted down Marshalik, who had also ducked behind a car, and shot him in the back of his head, execution-style, police said.
Two police officers from Manhattan¹s 6th Precinct then chased Garvin, who exchanged gunfire with them, but no one was hit, officials said. Garvin ducked into the Village Tannery, a leather goods store, at 173 Bleecker St., to reload his weapon and ³double back,² a police spokesman said. At that point, Garvin was cornered by police, who ordered him to drop his weapon. When he refused, he was killed in a 50-shot barrage.
Marshalik, Pekearo and Morales were all taken to St. Vincent¹s Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. Two 6th Precinct officers were also treated at the hospital for shock and trauma, a police spokesman said.
The gunman¹s 9 mm weapon was recovered near his body, along with a .380 semiautomatic pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition he was carrying in a bag, authorities said. A search of Garvin¹s Bronx apartment reportedly uncovered a .357-caliber handgun and another 100 rounds of ammunition.
Marshalik reportedly joined the city¹s auxiliary police unit early last year. Pekearo had been with the unit since 2003.
